Seven Deadly Sins
by potterlockedintheshire
Summary: "We're not just, like, just friends, are we?" And Puck has to give him props for that, because he never would have said it. He studies Finn, tense next to him, unmoving. "No," he finally says. "We're not." PINN


**Seven Deadly Sins**

**Warnings:** If you need a warning for male/male romance, then consider yourself adequately aware. Oh, there's a minimal amount of language and mentions of child abuse, although nothing very detailed.

**Disclaimer:** If I owned Glee, Mark Salling would be working non-stop.

A special thank-you to Emma (SimpleTune) for beta-reading this for me. Really appreciate it!

~**ONE~**

The first time Puck and Finn kiss, they're eight years old and have been friends for a week.

Finn sits in the sandbox at the park near his house, Noah on the outer edge because "sandboxes are for little kids," kicking the dirt up with his feet while Finn talks about how it's like they're in the desert and what if they get eaten by sand-lizards or whatever.

"C'mon, let's do something, Noah," Finn says, looking up from the lump of sand that he's been forming. "I'm tired of building my sand castle."

"do what?"

"I dunno. What do you want to do?"

"Not build anything," Noah answers, rolling his eyes at Finn's excuse for a sand castle. "Let's do something else."

"Like what?" They've been on the swings already, and the slide is taken by a giggling group of six year olds, so Finn's baffled.

"We could find a football. Or watch a movie. Or kiss."

Finn almost misses the last suggestion. He knocks over half his lump in surprise. "Ew! We're _friends, _Noah."

Noah nods, looking confused by Finn's reaction. "Yeah, so?"

"So," Finn says, "friends don't kiss their friends."

"Sure they do. My ma has lots of boys she kisses all the time, and dad gets real angry, but she always tells him they're just her friends."

Finn looks unconvinced. "So we should kiss? 'Cause we're friends?"

Noah shrugs. "Why not? I'm bored."

Finn thinks for a minute, watching Noah, who's still on the sandbox's wooden edge. "You sure?"

Noah nods, and Finn moves closer and closer until their lips are barely touching. He stays still for a second, worried, but Noah leans towards him, their mouths feeling foreign but not entirely uncomfortable on each other. Finn waits, still, before moving away.

"Friends do that, right?" He doesn't know why he asks; they've already done it.

"Yeah," Noah confirms. "I told you; friends can kiss friends too. And I'm not bored anymore."

~**TWO~**

The second time Puck and Finn kiss, Noah has a dislocated left shoulder and a black eye. Finn doesn't ask, but from the way his friend is yelling into the dying light at the park about his dad, Finn's got a pretty good idea of why. He knows Noah doesn't get along with his dad well, has seen some of the results of their disagreements on the other boy's skin, but this is the first time he's said something other than "It's nothing" or "just forget it."

"I'm glad he's gone," Noah's saying, and Finn doesn't know if he's supposed to respond. "I'm glad he left and I hope he never comes back; I hate him so damn much, he can stay gone forever for all I care and-" He swings his left arm violently, then winces, hugging it tightly with his right and glaring at the ground.

He doesn't know what to say, but Finn can't just leave Noah there either. So he goes up to him slowly, waiting until Noah looks up to kiss him. He's careful to avoid the bruised eye, and even though it's been nearly two years, the feel of Noah's lips are the same as before. Because they're friends, and best friends don't forget what it feels like to kiss each other.

**~THREE~**

The third time Puck and Finn kiss, Finn's told that his friend is now "Puck," not "Noah."

"We're going into middle school, Finn. 'Noah' is a kid's name." To Finn, 'Puck' sounds more like a kid's name than 'Noah,' but he just nods.

"I think I'll get a Mohawk too," Puck says. "Just to change things up a little. People won't even recognize me when we get back to school.

"Why not?" Finn asks, because a new name and new hairstyle doesn't mean people won't recognize him.

"'Cause, dude, I'm going to be a whole new person and everything."

"What if you'd be better as the same person? What if I don't like 'Puck?'" Finn knows he sounds a little stupid, but who does Noah think he is, trying to change everything like that? "I thought you were my best friend."

"Relax. I'm still your best friend, alright? Just different."

Finn looks unconvinced. "But you're gonna be different; that's the problem. You're gonna be 'Puck,' and you'll look different and probably act different too, then." And he can't seem to explain it to him, can't get across that he _needs _Noah because Noah's his friend, his very _best _friend, and what's he supposed to do without that?

"Finn, chill. Really, we're still cool."

"But maybe if you're Puck you won't still…I won't still-"

He's cut off by a mouth on his, and after a startled moment, he finds himself kissing back. It's not like before; they linger now, and Finn tries to convey in his lips how Noah _can't _change on him, can't do that to him. He feels the other boy pressing back, and he wonders what it is Noah's trying to say.

"Puck's still your best friend, too."

**~FOUR~**

The fourth time Puck and Finn kiss, they've been in high school for a week and know they're not the only ones their age that do that anymore. Except all the others _are _romantic, not just friends, and none of them are both guys.

And both of them know they're straight, straight, _perfectly straight, _so it's not like they're acting gay or anything, Puck figures. They're just best friends who're such good bros that they can do that without it mattering. Puck likes chicks, he knows it, so what does it matter if Finn's kind of an exception to his normal perception of guys? Finn's his best friend; he's _supposed _to be different.

But there's only so much "close-bro-ness" that's okay at school, and they both know it. They're on the football team, jocks even during freshman year, and Puck can tell that by the time they're seniors, maybe even before, he and Finn'll be running the school. So they're not going to ruin that by being a little closer than most guys are.

It's not like they're one of those homos, the kind of guy who walks around in sparkly clothes with the word "fairy" practically written on his forehead. Puck was worried for a little bit, he'll admit, but he sleeps with some girls and he enjoys it plenty, so that solves that right there. It's natural to feel more strongly to Finn, he tells himself. He'd be a suckish friend if he didn't.

And, okay, maybe Puck really does like hanging out with Finn, despite the number of times he's told his friend that he's an idiot. And, yeah, sometimes he feels like he got punched in the stomach when he turns around and just sees Finn there, but he knows it's nothing compared to how it'd feel if he mentioned it and then actually _did _get punched in the stomach for it, so he says nothing.

At least, he says nothing until the first Saturday of freshman year. They're both tired from playing ball earlier in the afternoon, so they lie there, panting slightly, facing each other on Finn's bed. They're still for a while, silent except for the sounds of their ragged breaths as they inch closer and closer to each other, and Puck can feel his heart beating the way it doesn't with the girls at schoolor even the older women he's started to get involved with, and it must just be left-over adrenaline from their game earlier.

But then Finn moves in closer, hesitates, and pulls away, eyes locked on to the boy's next to him. "You know how you said, a long time ago, that we can, like, do what we do because we're friends?" And he knows what Finn's talking about, of course, despite his jumbled phrasing.

Puck nods, because, yeah, he does know how he said that.

"We're not just, like, just friends, are we?" And Puck has to give him props for that, because he never would have said it.

He studies Finn, tense next to him, unmoving. "No," he finally says. "We're not."

"So, does that mean we can't, like, do that anymore or anything, because it'd be weird if we're not just friends?"

It's Puck who moves in this time, and he can barely feel Finn's lips against his. "No. It doesn't."

**~FIVE~**

The fifth time Puck and Finn kiss, Puck can still feel where Finn punched him in the face.

"She's my girlfriend! I hate you! She's my girlfriend!" He doesn't seem to be able to let go of it, as if their "in a relationship" status somehow means that Puck can't have gotten her knocked up.

Puck figured Finn had gotten it out of his system back when he walked into the Glee Club room and started punching him, but now, less than an hour later, they're on the floor of the boy's restroom, and Puck supposes that not everything's as easily forgiven as he wishes it was.

It's hard to resist not flipping them over and ending up on top of Finn, returning each punch he's having to take. But he knows that'd be stupid, that'd be unfair, so he just does his best to block them, shoving Finn's fist away and closing his eyes. He hates not fighting back properly, but what can he do?

Finally, Finn seems to tire himself out enough to quit using his fists, and Puck just has to listen to "Lied to me!" and "Can't believe you'd do that!" and "Cheated on me!" over and over again.

"Damn; look, I'm sorry, dude," Puck says, still on the floor, once Finn's stopped raging. And he is, really. He wants to add _I'm sorry I did it with her and I'm sorry you dated her and I'm sorry I like her too and maybe I'm confused now because we both like her except maybe we don't, maybe it's not her we love, I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry _but he doesn't. He just lifts his head up from the tile to meet Finn, who's still straddling him on the bathroom floor. And he puts his apologies into his physical actions because it's where he puts everything else anyways, and it's so much easier than telling Finn what he means. Besides, he's thinks that maybe Finn understands.

"I hate you," Finn says when they break apart, and Puck braces himself for another punch to the stomach. "I hate you so damn much." He kisses Puck again.

**~SIX~**

The sixth time Puck and Finn kiss, Rachel's in her wedding gown. They're getting ready, everyone there except Quinn, and Finn's straightening his tie again. Mike and Artie went to go eat before the wedding, Kurt and Blaine are with Rachel, and Finn's kind of lost track of where everyone else is. All he knows is that it's just Puck in the room with him, sitting on the couch on the side of the room while Finn paces back and forth, dress shoes clicking softly on the floor.

"Nervous?"

"Yeah."

"Why? I thought you said you love her, right?" Finn ignores the skepticism in his friend's tone.

"I do. It's just kind of scary; the thought of forever. Rachel's cool and all, plus she's really hot, but it's scary."

"So why're you doing it?" Puck gets up, blocking Finn's path across the room, and Finn feels his breath catch at Puck's proximity.

"I- I just…I want to be with someone who loves me, Puck. You understand that, right?"

Before he can say anything, Puck's kissed him and then backed away, leaving the soon-to-be groom staring at him, confused, and he can feel his mind searching for the moment when he and Puck were kissing, too small of a time frame to capture.

"Yeah," Puck says, walking out the door. "Yeah, I understand that."

**~SEVEN~**

The seventh time Puck and Finn kiss, the tassels of their graduation caps are hanging in their faces.

"I can't believe we did it," Finn says, and the words sound distant, as if the meaning is still veiled. Later, Finn figures, it'll all be so much clearer, but for now, he's standing alone with his friend, his _best friend, _in their graduation gowns, and that's good enough that he doesn't really need to feel it just yet.

"D'you remember when we first started here?" Puck asks. "I didn't think about graduating then. Hell, I didn't think I was gonna get past sophomore year. Seems odd now, doesn't it?"

And it does feel odd, for some reason; it's like a song where the instrument suddenly changes, and they're living the same melody in a different pitch.

"God," Finn says. "Everything's changed now, hasn't it?"

Puck looks at him for a moment, and it doesn't matter that the room's empty; he would've done the same thing in front of the entire graduating class. He leans into Finn, tilting his head and pressing their lips together, not caring what it means, not caring that they're best friends and what best friends can or can't do, or even what the term means for them, because what does it matter if they use it the same way everyone else does, really?

And they're in a sandbox, Puck sitting on the outer ledge and Finn building a sandcastle, and they're in the bright red wardrobe from their ceremony that means _we did it! _And Puck can hear his name being called as he walked across the stage, can hear Finn saying _Friends do that, right?_, can hear his heart thumping like it did every time before. He can hear what Finn had said just a minute before, even though the question's already been asked. _Everything's changed now, hasn't it?_

"No," Puck says. "Maybe nothing ever did."


End file.
